Today in History: May 22-25

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If you’re interested in history and foreign affairs, Foreign Exchanges is the newsletter for you! Sign up for free today for regular updates on international news and US foreign policy, delivered straight to your email inbox, or subscribe and unlock the full FX experience:Subscribe nowHappy Memorial Day to those who are celebrating! I took a short break for the holiday but we’ll be back to our regular schedule tomorrow. Thanks for reading!May 22, 853: A Byzantine army/fleet attacks and sacks the Egyptian port city of Damietta. Emperor Michael III was attempting to weaken the Emirate of Crete, the target of several unsuccessful Byzantine offensives since Arab forces took the island in the 820s, by cutting off its Egyptian support. Damietta was an easy target as Arab naval forces in Egypt were primarily tasked with patrolling the Nile rather than defending the Mediterranean coast, and so the Byzantine forces had little trouble taking and looting the city. Their three day occupation didn’t have much in the way of long-term repercussions but it stands as a rare Byzantine military victory over the Abbasids in this period that set the stage for the much more successful “Macedonian Dynasty” that would succeed Michael.May 22, 1990: The Yemen Arab Republic (North Yemen) and the People’s Democratic Republic of Yemen (South Yemen) are united as the Republic of Yemen. After the formation of a unified government that tended to favor northern Yemen, southern Yemen attempted to secede in 1994, touching off a short (May-July) Yemeni civil war. A lingering southern secessionist movement has…